When an oil, chemical, or other hydrocarbon spill occurs in water an effort is made to absorb the oil, chemical, or other hydrocarbon and recover or retrieve it. This is done with the use of straw, hay, sawdust, absorbent pads or booms, “Kitty Litter” and several other adsorbents. However these adsorbents hold water as well as the oil. They therefore become saturated with a mixture of water and oil, chemical, or other hydrocarbon and sink. Generally speaking, only a small portion of the spilt oil, chemical, or other hydrocarbon is removed from the environment and recovered for further processing. The remainder of the oil, chemical, or other hydrocarbon spill is burnt, dispersed or treated with harsh chemicals, which themselves often cause further environmental damage. Much of the oil, chemical, or other hydrocarbon is trapped in the sunken adsorbent and may be slowly released into the water over a period of many years causing long-term environmental damage.
When an oil, chemical, or other hydrocarbon spill occurs on land a similar process using adsorbent booms or embankments is used but any excess which is not readily collected or retrieved is frequently washed away with water and/or detergents into the nearest drain, or burnt, or dispersed over a wide area.
One example of an environmentally sympathetic product used in the retrieval of oil, chemicals or other hydrocarbons from the environment is, for example, a product made from recycled waste plant fibres which are hydrophobic and oleophilic.
Other environmentally unsympathetic solutions for oil spills, for example, include the use of surfactants and dispersion agents.
The need for better recovery products and processes has been recognised worldwide. To date there has been no suitable product that will collect the oil, chemical, or other hydrocarbon, hold it in suspension, and cause it to separate from the water or soil so that it can be recovered or retrieved. It is an object of this invention to provide recovery products and processes suited to the efficient removal of oil, chemical or other hydrocarbon spills from a polluted environment.